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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22946179">Come what may</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrictlyNoFrills/pseuds/StrictlyNoFrills'>StrictlyNoFrills</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Hobbit - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Female Bilbo Baggins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:35:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,705</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22946179</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrictlyNoFrills/pseuds/StrictlyNoFrills</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A place to keep ideas for future stories about Fili and Lady Bilbo.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bilbo Baggins/Fíli</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Fili Friday!</p><p>I’ve been a bit stressed lately, so I’ve been taking a bit of a break from my works in progress. </p><p>I still wanted to have something for Fili Friday, though, so I decided to start a place for things yet to come.</p><p>I’m also hoping to post a meta this evening based on a fic by Agent_Snark, <i>Just One Blind Date</i>, provided that the internet will behave.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Erebor never fell to Smaug. All of the dwarven kingdoms are loosely united under the line of Durin. After the Fell Winter, the Tooks and Brandybucks grew more militant, and the other hobbit clans disapproved. The Tooks and the Brandybucks eventually reached out to Erebor’s king, wishing to find a stronghold for their people. Thrain agreed, but asked that a daughter of the Thane’s line marry a son of Thrain’s line to better secure the new alliance. Bilbo reluctantly agreed to be the bride but saw a way out once she and her cousins reached Erebor.</p><p>If she could defeat Fili in the fight meant to serve as their wedding ceremony, then she would not be his wife.</p><p>It is during this fight that we join these two young people…</p>
<hr/><p>It was quieter than it should have been, the roar of the crowd having been drowned out by the bellowing of her thoughts.</p><p>Dodge this way.</p><p>Swipe.</p><p>Side-step.</p><p>Strike back.</p><p>Do not get within his range.</p><p>Do anything. Anything to keep the fight going.</p><p>Anything to keep it from ending, because she knew now that she could never hope to win, no matter how desperately she needed to.</p><p>She needed to get out.</p><p>She knew she was as safe as she could be with the Crown Prince, but she felt trapped. Helpless. Caught up in a web not spun by her hands.</p><p>Bilbo wanted to do right by her people, but she couldn’t. She was young. Scared. So, she kept fighting, as hard as she possibly could. Yet as fiercely as she strove against him, she could see that he was barely expending any effort at all. He did not even appear to be out of breath, while her lungs heaved, sweat dripped down her forehead and into her eyes, and her traitorous limbs grew sore and heavy.</p><p>Then the inevitable happened. She made a mistake.</p><p>Just a small one, but that one unguarded moment signaled the end of everything. After this, any hope she had of deciding her own fate was gone.</p><p>Her sword flew out of her hand and hit the stone floor with a clang. She tried to keep going, gathering enough force in her body for a good punch, but Fili anticipated her, grabbing her oncoming fist and using it to spin her around and into his arms, his strong chest pressing up against her back.</p><p>She felt him shift and then his lips were flush against the tip of her ear, causing an unwelcome shiver of heat down her spine and low in her belly.</p><p>“Yield,” he ordered, the word gentle but firm.</p><p>“No,” she snarled back, squirming in vain and failing to stem her rising panic. “I will not! You cannot make me.”</p><p>“My lady, you are tired. You have lost your sword. Your body is shaking. Yield now, before you hurt yourself and before your actions humiliate both your house and mine."</p><p>She gasped for breath as she continued to struggle, only to let out a sob when he tightened his hold and she could not move even a fraction of an inch.</p><p>“Shh,” he crooned, his voice low and comforting in a way a captor’s had no right to be.</p><p>Because he wasn’t her captor, no matter how she tried to paint him so in her mind.</p><p>The moment she lost the fight – and there was no way to deny now that she had lost the fight – the wedding ceremony had come to an end.</p><p>Bilbo sobbed again, and Fili swayed her gently from side to side, likely hoping to sooth her, but only succeeding in making her feel even more trapped, because the soft motion forced her to admit that Fili had been right. There was no way she could have gone on. By this point, his arms were keeping her upright even more than they were keeping her from bolting.</p><p>“Hush, now. It’s alright, my lady. I’ll not hurt you. You are mine, now, but I am just as much yours. If you will let me, I will do my best to make you happy. But first, you must yield.”</p><p>She did not want to. Oh, how she did not want to.</p><p>Yet, she had no hope now of doing anything else, and so she sighed, “I yield.”</p><p>“You have to say it loud enough for them to hear you.”</p><p>Them? Oh, yes. The crowd of dwarves from each of the seven kingdoms, along with her cousins. In the time since Fili had caught her, she had completely forgotten that they were not alone.</p><p>She raised her chin defiantly, refused to meet the eyes of any of the spectators, and declared with as much volume as she could muster, “I yield.”</p><p>King Thrain stepped forward to declare Bilbo and Fili wed, and then something entirely unexpected happened.</p><p>“Fili, son of Dis, I challenge you for the hand of Bilbo Baggins.”</p><p>Her breath caught in a level of horror not previously known to her. “Can he do that?”</p><p>“Unfortunately,” Fili said, his tone grim.</p><p>“Why would he do that? And what does that mean for the alliance?”</p><p>“Oh, now you remember our peoples?” he asked sardonically.</p><p>“Your highness-“</p><p>“Fili. Call me Fili. As soon as I deal with Narv, you will be my wife. Providing no other dwarves are foolish enough to challenge me,” he said, grumbling lowly to himself at the end. “I’ll not have my wife using my title.”</p><p>“Are you sure you can beat him?”</p><p>Fili made a noise in the back of his throat. “My lady, please. I know you are upset, but there’s no cause for insults.”</p><p>“I wasn’t – I didn’t mean-“</p><p>“Hush,” he said again, something strangely akin to affection in his voice. “I can beat him. I’m not worried about that.”</p><p>“Then what are you worried about?” she asked.</p><p>“Caught that, did you? By challenging my claim, Narv risks weakening the alliance between our peoples, and he challenges the authority of my line. Bold of him. I wonder what he thinks he’s playing at.”</p><p>“Would I really have to marry him if you lost?” Her voice was small and frightened, and she felt the walls of the mountain beginning to close in about her.</p><p>“Well, you’d have to fight him, too, but I think we both know how that would end, so yes, you would.”</p><p>“Fili, you have to win,” she said urgently. She didn’t like the look of this Narv. He was huge, standing almost a head above most of the other dwarves in the hall, and he had an arrogant look that set her on edge, as there was no humor to soften it the way that it softened Fili’s cocky air. She caught Narv’s gaze, and the dismissive look in his eyes made her insides turn to ice. She was nothing to him. Nothing at all.</p><p>“And suddenly you wish to be married to me, as well. Will wonders never cease. Don’t worry, my lady. You’ll not be losing any more battles today.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Then comes the dawn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In a world where Thorin dies and Dain succumbs to gold sickness shortly after taking control of Erebor, Bilbo faces her darkest moment alone...</p><p>Or does she?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A slightly belated Happy Fili Friday to you all! :) I wasn't feeling well today, so it took me awhile to get this up, but it's here now.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Heart pounding harder than it ever had in her chest as though to make up for how soon it would stop beating forever, she knelt down upon the cold, hard, uneven stone floor of the execution chamber, which dug into the flesh of her knees. With her shaking right hand, she reached up to clutch at the necklace Fili had given her in Lake-town, before Thorin announced that Kili was to stay behind, and everything began to fall apart.</p><p>The feeling of his courting gift beneath her fingers gave her courage, and so with the thumb of her left hand, she rubbed over her wedding ring, which she had only had since a few days before the battle, but which felt like it had always been a part of her. Touching the works of his hands, even though she knew that there was no hope of rescue now, with the executioner standing at her back, his freshly sharpened sword held at the ready, she felt as though Fili was with her, and all would be well. If she concentrated hard enough, she could even smell the cedar and steel and amber scent which Fili had carried with him even after weeks spent in a Mirkwood prison cell, hours trapped in a barrel full of apples, and an unfortunate encounter with dozens of dead fish.</p><p>She stared straight ahead, meeting Dain’s dispassionate eyes, still clouded over with gold sickness, and silently urged him to give the order and get this over with. If she was to die, she would do it as she was now, proudly, with no tears upon her cheeks. Dain didn’t deserve the satisfaction.</p><p>The edge of the blade which would be the final thing she would feel in this life kissed the back of her neck, and still she kept her eyes open. Then she felt warm breath upon the delicate flesh of her ear, and she held in a shudder.</p><p>“This sword was a gift to me from the princess of Erebor.”</p><p>She sucked in a sharp breath, struggling to keep her expression neutral, and whispered, “Fili?” hardly daring to believe it. She had seen that sword go through his back, had watched him fall from that tower.</p><p>“I’m here, ghivashel. Do you see that dwarf with the mask pulled over his face? That’s Kili. When I give the signal, I need you to run to him as hard and as fast as you can.”</p><p>“But what about you?”</p><p>“Don’t worry. I’ll join you just as soon as I can.” He began to speak in his people’s tongue, the guttural words sounding ritualistic, and then the edge of the sword withdrew from the back of her neck. Moments later, it sailed through the air, straight into a bewildered Dain’s neck, just above where his armor ended.</p><p>Bilbo jerked up and began to run towards the tall, dark figure Fili had indicated, ducking and dodging dwarves from all sides. When she rammed into Kili, he scooped her up and darted out of the execution chamber, running full out for several long moments with dozens of dwarves on their heels. When he had outpaced them by a good deal, he stopped in front of a tapestry and swept it aside, nicking the index finger of his free hand upon the edge of a basin beside what appeared to be the entrance to a secret passageway, and squeezed a few drops of blood inside. The door slid open, and Kili stepped inside, the door closing behind them silently and sealing them into a narrow passage that gradually began to brighten from pitch black to a barely tolerable dimness broken up by what looked like starlight seeping through grooves in the walls.</p><p>“These walls will only shine for the line of Durin,” Kili told her quietly.</p><p>“Really? That’s what you want to open with? I’ve thought you and your brother were dead for weeks, and the first thing you want to talk about is why there’s starlight coming out of the bloody walls?”</p><p>Kili huffed a rueful laugh and then squeezed her gently. “Sorry, little sister. What would you rather talk about?”</p><p>“How about we start with how you and Fili are alive? And where exactly you two have been?”</p><p>With a sigh, Kili told her, “We were in Mirkwood. The prince saved me and Tauriel, and she begged him to ask his father to heal Fili. I don’t know what she said that finally convinced him – they were speaking in an elvish dialect that I don’t understand, and she refuses to explain it to me – but Legolas retrieved Fili and took all three of us to see Thranduil. The elvenking did what he could to stabilize Fili while we were here and took us back to his kingdom where he and the healers there could do more. He finally woke up and started to regain his strength about a week ago, and as soon as word reached us that Dain had sentenced you to death, we thanked Thranduil and Legolas and began to make our way here.”</p><p>He was quiet for a moment while Bilbo processed all of this, and then he told her, “I’m so sorry that we weren’t here to protect you, Bilbo. If I’d had any idea that this would happen to you –“</p><p>She took a deep breath and said, “I’m just glad you and Fili are alright. Please, don’t feel bad. You came when you could, and you saved me. We’ll all be together again, and we will figure this out. In the end, that’s all that matters… Um. We will all be together again, won’t we? What exactly is Fili doing, and when are we going to see him again?”</p><p>“Of course, we’ll see him again! We decided that Fili should be the one to cover our exit, since he’s still not running as fast as he used to, and he shouldn’t be carrying anything too heavy for a little while yet – not that I think you’re heavy,” he added hastily, “because you’re definitely not. Could do with a bit of fattening up, to be honest.”</p><p>“You realize, of course, that hearing that Fili stayed behind even though he’s not as strong or as fast as he used to be isn’t at all comforting, right?”</p><p>Kili stopped walking, responding to something Bilbo could not detect, and then for a moment, Bilbo was blinded by a sudden influx of light. She slammed her eyelids shut, waiting a few beats before opening them again. She could just make out the outline of the dwarf she would know anywhere, and she let out a heavy sigh of relief.</p><p>“Fili! Thank goodness you’re alright! I thought I might have lost you – <em>again</em>!”</p><p>“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I had to get a bit creative while I was giving the mob of Dain’s dwarves the slip.” He sighed heavily. “Someday, we’ll be able to retake the mountain, but for now, we’ll have to settle for accepting the hospitality of Thranduil’s halls.”</p><p>“At least he won’t throw anyone in the dungeons this time. Will he?”</p><p>She heard him give an affectionate chuckle. “No. This time, we truly will be Thranduil’s guests, not his prisoners. I may not be able to take the throne of Erebor yet, but he knows I will one day, and he has no desire to be in conflict with such a close neighbor when the time comes.”</p><p>“Well,” she said lightly, “I suppose that’s something, at least.”</p><p>A low grumbling filled the passageway, and a moment later, she felt Kili’s shoulders shake with repressed laughter. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here so we can get some food in you. When was the last time you ate anything?”</p><p>She thought of all the pitiful rations of bread and water she’d been given in the weeks since Dain’s dwarves had thrown her in a cell, and of how the despair had set in when the rations slowly stopped coming, but she said nothing of it. “You know, I don’t know. I find I’ve quite forgotten. Nearly being executed will do that to a person, I suppose.” Before Fili could offer her another apology, which she could sense hanging on the tip of his tongue, she said, “But since Thranduil is being reasonable these days, I expect I’ll be able to do a bit of that fattening up you mentioned earlier, Kili. Who knows? I might even start looking like a proper hobbit lass again.”</p><p>“I look forward to it,” Fili told her, his voice soft.</p><p>She smiled in his direction, even though she knew he could not see it, no matter how well dwarves could see in the dark. “So do I.” She looked forward to many things, now that she knew Fili and his brother were alive, and she would not have to face the future alone – however short her future would have been had someone not interceded in the execution chamber. But enough about that. She was safe enough, and Fili and Kili were with her. For all that she could barely see past the tip of her nose, the future was beginning to look quite bright.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
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